Case Dismissed

I went to minor traffic court yesterday to plead my case for what I considered an unfair parking ticket.

I live close to Al Huda School in College Park and to the Greenbelt Metro Station and so there is restricted parking on most of the streets in the area and there are small signs posted to that effect. The signs at one end of the street differ from the signs as you get closer to the Metro and the restricted timings vary at either end of the street.

So on the day we went to sign the lease, we parked our cars and decided to go together in one car to the leasing agent’s office. While we were there the leasing agent told us that in order to park in front of the house we would need to take our copy of the lease to the parking permit office to obtain the parking permits for our cars.

After signing the lease, we got home and there was a ticket on my car. I felt the ticket was a bit of an injustice and as a matter of principle I plead not guilty and agreed to appear in court to contest the ticket at trial. I explained to the judge the situation and alhamdulillah he said that my explanation sounded reasonable and he found me not guilty and dismissed the case.

And not only that when I got to the underground parking garage at the courthouse I realized I didn’t have much change to pay for a parking spot but just then I looked at my window and a lady was there offering me her ticket and spot which was good for another 2 hours so I didn’t have to pay a thing. And then when I left I tried to find someone to offer the ticket and parking spot to but didn’t find anyone.

One thing I am going to tell you about the DC area, and I used to live there, is that I have never been anywhere so fanatical about parking tickets and towing people. I cant tell you how many times I had to give brothers a ride to the tow yard and I even had to go ther msyelf once.

Some of my fondest memories since I’ve moved from New York to this area are the restricted parking signs around masajid particularly the mahad, Dar al Hijrah, and Dar us Salaam, my parking and speeding tickets (most of which were dismissed at trial), and one pre-fajr trip to a tow lot.

Wait, wait, me too! The DC area is trippin on where you can park! I drove into DC one, ONE time, (didn’t know any better), but because I spent 9 years in NY (and you can’t even FIND a space in Manhattan let alone worry bout a ticket!) I was not trying to pay DC any money in a parking lot. After driving around and wasting enough gas that I probably would have evened out had I gone to a lot, I found a legit spot with a meter! How’s that for Allah looking out?!

But drive near Al Huda, which I do every morning, and you may as well just park up at Shoppers and walk down! College Park acts like Rodeo Drive they so nit-picky about where you can put your struggle buggy. (Don’t laugh; all ya’ll Muslims drive hoop-dees, me included.) But the thing about driving near Al Huda is the sneaky-butt cops that park on 52nd or 53rd way back from the corner and try to catch you not stopping at the sign. A few weeks ago I was coming to the corner of Edgewood and 52nd and another car was reaching the corner on 52nd at the same time. We BOTH stopped, not sure who was going to let who go first. The other car let me go first. I hadn’t even gotten to that speed hump when I hear the quick flip of a siren. I’m thinking “What! What!?” Cop pulls up behind me, gets out and sidles up to the the side of the car, all 5 feet 3 inches of her, with her hand on her glock. (Where she think she is, Ft. Greene Projects? You know I’m not in the mood, right?) She has this little thing in her hand (a recorder) and commences to giving me the speech about “Ma’am, you are being recorded right now both visually and audially….do you know why I pulled you over…blah, blah, blah.” I’m like, “NO.” And she’s all like, “YoufailedtostopatthestopsignmayIseeyourlicenseandregistration, please?” And I’m all like, “No, this &*%@ isn’t trying to jerk me around this morning!” Then I remembered I’m “travelling while Muslim” so I just keep my mouth shut up and give her the documentation. I KNOW I stopped at that sign because I wasn’t sure what the other car was going to do. WE BOTH STOPPED. This officer-woman-person gives me a ticket for $90…$90 dollars! You think I paid it already? I did not. You think I’m going to? I am taking my hijabi self to traffic court and intend to fight it by my state-given-right to do so.

I saw this chick the other day, too, layin back in the cut trying to be incognito near the bushes at the OTHER corner this time. And yeah, I stopped nice and long and looked at her.

Umm Atiyya, you’re on fire, you are hilarious and you seemed steamed. I say go to court, no matter how minor the offense especially if you feel you didn’t do anything wrong. Have you ever considered blogging? Are you coming to the study session at Dr. A’s on Saturday?

A few months ago, I was on Cherry Hill RD coming back from the hospital ER and pharmacy around 1am and of course I was cruising, next thing I know two police cruisers pulled me over, the officer asked me if I thought this was the Daytona 500 and I gave him all the attitude I could muster while telling me where I come from and where I was heading and then he let me off with a warning and I felt a little bad for giving him so much attitude.

For the CoC test? I don’t know who Dr. A is. I didn’t know there was a study session. I’ve been on Al Maghrib’s forum a a few times but never saw anything about the session. I just got my master notes on Thursday! I’m on someone else’s computer (don’t have my own) so I guess I’ll be studying by my lonesome.

I thought about blogging once, but I don’t think I have that much to say about stuff, and I don’t know if anyone would really read it. I love reading your blog and Umm Adam’s. She cracks me up! Plus, it’s kinda hard when you don’t have your own computer!

My students and I met the Mayor of College Park a few months ago. At one point the Mayor raised the issue of parking tickets around the College Park area and informed the students that “parking enforcement” was a responsibility of local government. I kinda laughed at that point and so did he. I believe the figure he stated (don’t quote me on this) was about 35,000 parking tickets per year written by city of College Park!

That is certainly a lot of tickets for a city with a population of approx. 25,000. According to the Mayor, that figure does not even include the University of Maryland — which is solely responsible for its own parking enforcement.

Even though I no longer live in Maryland, I have worked and lived in College Park … so I am familiar with area — particularly the enforcement of parking & traffic. What concerns me about the immediate area near Dar us Salaam / Al Huda is the speeding that I see taking place by both Muslims and non-Muslim alike. Some of the most (if not the most) notorious speeders are brothers leaving DUS immediately after salat al Jumuah. Many of these brothers also conveniently park wherever they want on Edgewood Road or restricted DUS parking areas — and then have the nerve to get upset when Br. Yaser Nada (DUS Building Manager) threatens to get people towed.

The second most notorious group I see rushing (speeding is more like it) are the mothers of Al Huda School students. Sometimes it is a bit unnerving to see a sister of 5’3” in a 2 ton SUV barreling down Edgewood Road at 40+ mph. Worse than that is when I see it happening in Al Huda’s parking lot.

I think everyone who goes to DUS has noticed the cop who is parked right outside of Al Huda, at times, and gives tickets left-n-right for everything from speeding to not obeying the STOP sign right off of school property.